The "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou" were mainly active in the heyday of the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty. It is a vibrant cluster of masters that is very different from the orthodox school of the "Four Kings". They were active participants in Yangzhou's economic life and social activities at that time, and they were also popular celebrities who were deeply loved by yangzhou citizens and social elites. They are not only the outstanding inheritors of traditional literati freehand painting, but also the pioneers and teachers of modern artistic thought. With its highly creative and distinct artistic personality and proficient in poetry and painting, the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou" composed a symphony of painting and commodity integration, thus becoming the first painter in the history of Chinese painting to consciously establish a sense of commodity for their own creation. Their arduous and bumpy artistic career is enough to make Gangu sigh, and their exquisite paintings are enough to fascinate the centuries. Its immortal spirit has penetrated deep into the essence of human civilization, enriching the meaning and form of national aesthetics, and people are convinced of the brilliant and eternal splendor of the "eight monsters" and are always full of fascination and love. Here, we use the eight painters listed in Li Yudi's "Examination of Painting and Calligraphy in the Ou Bao Luo Room" at the end of the Qing Dynasty, namely Wang Shishen, Li Kun, Huang Shen, Jin Nong, Gao Xiang, Zheng Xie, Li Fangyi and Luo Ping, and arrange them in the order of their years of birth. In the Yangzhou painting circle with abundant talents at that time, these eight painters were extremely representative and typical, and they were all attributed to the "Eight Monsters of Yangzhou" without shame.
Li Fangyi (1695-1755), also known as Qiu Zhong, Qingjiang, Qiuchi, Yuanyuan, Mulberry Weng, Baiyi Shanren and so on. He served as a county magistrate in Le'an, Lanshan, shandong, and was imprisoned for asking for orders and resisting his superiors. Later, when he went to Anhui as an official, he was framed for being arrogant and superior. After losing his official position, he was "poor and old" and made a living selling paintings. Good at painting pine chrysanthemum orchid bamboo, vertical and horizontal ups and downs, pan plug demon correction, do not let green vines, white sun. Occasionally paint fish and insects, simple and vivid, straight to the Bada Shanren. He taught the law of nature, advocated momentum, and was unique in his title Mei poem: "Iron dry copper skin jasper branches, the old tree in front of the court is my teacher, the painter's portal must eventually stand, do not learn the yuan chapter and make up for it." "The bamboo of wind and rain, the upside-down orchid and the thousand flowers and flowers are all able to write majestic ink and ink, and the poetry and painting are integrated, and the feelings are sincere."
In the winter of the sixteenth year of Qianlong (1751), Li Fangyi was no longer an official after returning from the position of Zhi County in Hefei. But he did not return to his hometown of Nantong, nor did he go to Yangzhou, where the literati and calligraphers and painters gathered, but borrowed the Xiang's Garden in Nanjing, and Li Fang's inscription was "Borrowing garden", and the Xiang's Garden has since had a new name. In the borrowed garden, Li Fang lived for four years, during which he was very close to yuan ming, a literary master at that time, and the painter Shen Feng, talking about poetry and painting, not asking about politics, leisurely wandering, living a comfortable life, and producing a large number of calligraphy and painting works.
Li Fangyi's strangeness comes from his stubborn temper, he specifically finds others who do not paint, cannot paint, disdain to paint, paint Dream Plum, Wind, Broken Basin, Weak Orchid, and release all his "stubbornness" in painting, and eventually become a monster in Yangzhou.
Li Fangbing loved plum blossoms the most in his life, painting plum blossoms until the end of his life, nearly half of his heirloom works are plum blossom themes, and the number of creations alone can also show his love for plum blossoms. Li Fangyi loves Mei and loves mesmerized. That year, he went to Chuzhou, Anhui Province, as an agent of Zhizhou, and when he arrived, he went to the Drunken Pavilion and laid a red carpet in front of Ouyang Xiu's hand planting plum trees.
The plum blossoms painted by Li Fangyi are vigorous and old with a pen, the composition is concise and loose, the waves are longitudinal, the ink is dripping, the branches are thin and hard, the buds are budded, and there are large pieces of white space. Su Dongpo is the top master of painting plums, but Zheng Banqiao was deeply attracted by Li Fang's plum blossoms, and even sighed: "Dongpo, and fearsome", the evaluation is high, and it is incomparable.
Zheng Banqiao said in the "Title Li Fangbin Painting Plum Long Scroll" made five years after Li Fangbin's death: "Orchid bamboo painting, what everyone does, is not good. Plum blossoms, the world does not do, even more not good. But the lay monks themselves do it, and every time they see a large section of charcoal to support my eyes, it is really evil and disgusting. When the fourth brother of Yijiang Li did nothing in the world, it was difficult to see the work and to mouth. Therefore, his painting plum is the first in the world. The day is staring, the night is conceived, the body is forgotten in the clothes, the mouth is forgotten in the taste, and then the god of plums, the sex of Dame, the rhyme of plums, the love of plums, plums also bow down, into its cut and carving and can not come out. The so-called cutter is never cut, but the real cut; the so-called cutter, never portrayed, is the true portrayal. It is advisable to stop the song and do not go to heaven, and those who do not know what is going on, ask the Qingjiang, do not know themselves, nor can they tell others, foolishly come to Tongzhou, get to see this volume, the spirit is full of excitement, and the excitement is vivid. This volume of new branches and ancient stems, mixed with flying, makes people look for its rise and fall, and I want to sit under it, do ten days of homework, and then go to the ear. On this painting, he also inscribed a four-word poem: "Megan gnawing, plum moss Ye Ye, a few petals of ice soul, thousand autumn ancient snow." ”
Li Fangbin loves the wind, and the ink bamboo belt wind is his distinctive feature. "The waves and eunuchs of the sea are a few floats, planting bamboo and closing the door to learn to paint." Laughing at himself is full of guts, and he still loves the fierce wind. This is the inscription poem on the "Wind and Bamboo Diagram". Just four sentences let us understand the experience and thoughts of the painter, although behind closed doors to plant bamboo paintings, but the upright disposition is difficult to change, may the wind can sweep away the muddy water of the world.
In Li Fangbin's pen, the fierce wind is certainly a symbol of the indomitable spirit, but this is only one aspect of the painter's personality, reflecting his side of the struggle against the evil forces; the other aspect of his character, that is, the care and sympathy for the lower people, prompts his weathering to become a spring wind that makes everything flourish, so that the toiling masses can get a warm wind. He wrote in the poem "Inscription painting plum": "The pen and ink marks are new, a few plum blossoms are the most lovely, and I am willing to borrow the sky to blow far away, and the doors and alleys of my home will become spring." He hoped that the heavenly wind would blow the lovely plum blossoms to every household, so that every household could enjoy the fragrance of plum blossoms, so that every household could feel the warmth of spring. The wind on this day is a warm wind and a Japanese wind that is completely different from the fierce wind. It can be seen that Li Fangyi's love of writing style and painting style is the full embodiment of his distinct personality.
Sanqing album 25.3x32.5cm
MoMeitu On paper, 125.6x42.9cm, Collection of the Palace Museum
Bamboo stone drawing on paper 139.5x54.5cm Collection of the Palace Museum
Merlin Bamboo Chrysanthemum Pine Album 24.5×38.2cm
Bamboo stone diagram on paper 140x66.6cm Collection of Liaoning Provincial Museum
Gu Songtu on paper 123x43.6cm Collection of the Palace Museum
Wind bamboo diagram on paper, 147.4x55.5cm, Shanghai Museum Collection
Ink Plum Book 23x42.4cm
Lan Shi Tu On Paper 110.8x48cm Collection of the Palace Museum
Wind and bamboo diagram On paper, 135.6x56.2cm Rongbao Zhaizang
Swimming Fish Drawing On Paper 123.5x60.3cm Collection of the Palace Museum